The weekly messenger. [volume] (St. Martinsville [i.e. St. Martinville] La.) 1886-1948, 1887-12-10
RINGS IN TREES
What Measurements of Forest
Growth Have Disclosed.
the Rings Declared Not a True
Test of a Trees Life.

ishrd and sent 10 the limbo Of myth with
Tells apple. Wa>hin~ton'S cherry tree
and other old acquaiHIancc'. Now the
are rims in trees have to-sJffcr hmboni-
za.ion, if the word may be allowed. Mr.
X. ". Furra$, an agcrt of the United
Sthes Forestry Department, who has
given much attention To the age OF tree
as indicated ny rings, rs well as to the
period at which trees Of diiIcrcpt species
stop growing and thltaC which the wood
j. Il, its best has reached some con-
illusions of general Interest. IL says:
NConccniric or annual rings. which
were once accepted as good legal evil
dcncc, fail, except where climate, Noil
temperature, humidity and all other sur
roundings arc regular and well balanced.
Otherwise, they are mere Guesswork.
The only region within my knowledge
where either rings or measurements were
reliable indications arc in the secluded,
even and regularly tempered valleys of
the Southern Pacific coast"
Annual measurements OF white elm,
catalpa, soft maple, sycamore. pig hick-
DRY, cotton wood, chestnut, box elder,
honey locust, coffee tee, burr and white
oak, black walnut, o,agc orange, white
pine, red cedar, mulberry and yellow
willow (ninctcen Species, made in south
eastern Nebraska, show that "annual
growth i very irregular. sometimes
scarcely pcrceptibe and again quite
!lrEr." and this he attributes TO the diff
ference in seasons. A. trees Increase III
age inner rings decrease III size, some
tim almost disappearing. Diminished
rate in growth after IA certain age is a
rule. Oi four great bccches mentioned
in London, there were three, each about
seventeen feet in girth, whose ages were
respectively 50. lo2 and 200 years. Mr..
Furras found twelve rings III black
locust six years old, twcnty-0ne rings in
a she'll bark hickory of twelve year.. ten
rings in a pig hickory of SIN years,
eleven rings in a wild crabappls of five
years, aud only twenty ring> in Il chest
nui OAK of twenty four year. An Amer
lean chestnut of only four ycais had
nine rings, while peach of eight years
had only five rings.
DR.. \. W. Childs. resident of Ne
brsska from 1854 to 1889, careful OBJ
server for the Smithsonian Institution,
who counted rings on some soft naples
eleven years two months old, found on
one side of the heart of one Uf them
forty rings. and not less than thirty We
anywhere. which were quite distinct
when the wood WAS green, but after it
had been seasoned only twcnty-four
rings could be distinguished. Another
. expcr; says that all oar Northern hard
woods make many rings "a year some
times rs many rs twelve, but AZ the last
SGT Of cell. in q years growth are very
small end the first very large the annual
growth can always he determined, cS-
ccvt when from local CauScs there is any
particular year little oI no cell growth
Thi> may give large number ON one
side Upon the Pacific coast of North
America trees do not reach the pr.nt
where they stop growing nearly ~ carly
~ tho,r of the Atlantic coast Two
hundred wears j. nearly III. great. are
attained on the eastern sale 20: "a con-
lucnt by trees that rtai,. their
vigor, while 500 wears is IT," case
Of several species on the Western
coast, and ore writer j. CON
confident that - >cquoia which was
measured was not less that 1876 years
old. AT Wrangcl, Il western .cmIoch,
six feet in diameter at the stum;,, was
four feet in diameter 1872 feet further up
the tr.;nk and il, rings showed A. y,;:,rs
But in the old Bartram Garucir, i,.ar
Philadelphia. not more than $50 yrd;'s
cid, almost nil the trees are on the down
grade. Thu QUcrcII, Robar England 5
pride. which III home is said to live 1909
years. has grown t. full size and died in
Til, rarirl. md tn" far'i@a spruccs are
io.ovsa2 ~;i;t. Siycr i;r> plantcd in
$500 aye o,cayinc The great di.Icr-
tacc in tin longevity OF trees upon tho
Sr~fnru and eastern cna.ts of conf iucnt